Oleksandr Usyk
and Rico Verhoeven are set to meet in Egypt on Saturday, with Usyk’s WBC heavyweight title on the line, and his WBA title set to go vacant if he doesn’t win.There are stakes in this fight, and while it’s easy enough to dismiss kickboxer Verhoeven as a “clown” opponent, I wouldn’t go quite that far. He’s not a professional boxer by trade — he’s had one fight, and it was 12 years ago against an opponent who would also be charitably described as “a professional boxer.”
But he’s a serious
combat athlete and a serious man. Anyone his size, who is as good at fighting as he is, cannot be totally ignored or laughed off.
Oleksandr Usyk’s recent form
Usyk may be the best boxer on the planet. He may be the best boxer of a generation. He is a no-doubt Hall of Famer — undisputed at cruiserweight, undisputed at heavyweight (twice!), he’s beaten the best opponents out there, several of them repeatedly. His pro career is an undisputed HOF vote alone, before you even get into his amateur boxing career and the several championships and gold medals there, including the 2012 Olympics, which had a strong heavyweight (201 lbs) field, and he was the clear cream of the crop.
Now 39, Usyk is winding down his time in boxing. He’s done all there is to do. This will be the first time in nearly six years that he’s fought someone other than Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, or Daniel Dubois. He beat Joshua twice in 2021-22, beat Dubois in 2023, beat Fury twice in 2024, and beat Dubois again last year.
He’s been the ultimate road warrior. He’s been a great, legitimate champion in two divisions. He is still in fantastic form in recent fights.
Rico Verhoeven’s recent form
Kickboxing. He last fought about 11 months ago, beating Artem Vakhitov by decision at Glory 100 in Rotterdam.
I’m not going to claim to be up on what’s happened in kickboxing over the last, oh, ever. Like a lot of combat sports fans I have absolute respect for kickboxing but it’s just not something I’ve followed beyond knowing some names over the years. Verhoeven is one of those names, and if you bother to study up just a bit on the 37-year-old, I think a couple things become clear, very quickly:
- This is a sincere champion-level fighter in his sport. That spells out on paper easy enough, but sample even a few of his fights over the last decade and change, and it’s clear as day. This is no paper champion; this guy’s elite at what he does.
- He is very technically sound. He doesn’t have to overwhelm with power or physical gifts. He can and often does win on technique, skill, and pure quality, which comes from being extremely dedicated to what he does and very serious about it. His fights aren’t movie kickboxing with wild, one-shot head kick knockouts.
Does any of that remind you of anyone? Like Usyk, Verhoeven is deeply serious about and deeply dedicated to being truly great. That is why he’s so great, same as Usyk. No shortcuts.
Who will win Usyk vs Rico?
Rico is 6’5”, he usually weighs about 270 lbs, he’s solidly built and just a huge man. He’s a champion of his sport. He’s earned being called the “King of Kickboxing.”
He’s a big, powerful man. He’s been in the spotlight. I do not think the pressure will get to him, even if fighting Usyk is — without meaning to be disrespectful to kickboxing — a far bigger global stage than he’s had before. I don’t think that will bother him.
It just comes down to experience in the discipline and, as always, levels. For all I know, Rico Verhoeven could beat a lot of heavyweight boxers. That might be true. But Oleksandr Usyk is truly special. He’s generational. He’s an all-timer. And he’s not 55 years old or something, either. He’s maybe a bit past his prime, but it hasn’t shown up yet in the ring.
Rico might score a home run punch and knock Usyk out. He’s big enough, strong enough. Heavyweight boxing is a wild card in that respect, more than any other division. One punch can change everything.
I do think Usyk will also have to be a little cautious up front and get a read on what Verhoeven is actually bringing. Experienced fighters who come into boxing can be odd. We’ve seen it with Conor McGregor, with Francis Ngannou and others.
Just little things like the stance, the way they throw punches — it’s like when position players are put in to pitch in a Major League game. A key reason you occasionally see those guys get a strikeout, or at least not get destroyed, is that basically nobody hitting against them has seen the like of a 72 mph fastball in ages. I’ve heard players describe it as having to try to remember their “high school swing,” which has long been adjusted and forgotten by the time they’re in the bigs, because they’re never really going to face pitching like that again. And then, suddenly, they do.
You don’t have to be as good as someone to potentially cause them problems. Rhythms can be thrown off, timing gets weird. Usyk has not fought anyone who will approach it the way Verhoeven has in a long, long time. Once he gets a look at it, you figure it’ll be easy, but if he’s not careful, yeah, some oddly-timed power shot could get in there. And then you never know.
The unfortunate thing from the Rico standpoint is that Usyk has never taken anyone less than 100 percent seriously. Like Rico, Usyk is a serious man. They have personalities, they have senses of humor, they’re not miserable people with harsh attitudes, but these are serious guys. Usyk also won’t want to be embarrassed, and frankly, losing to Verhoeven would be embarrassing.
Usyk will feel it out a little. Then when he wants to, Usyk will start to take over. I expect him to start chipping away, then pick it up, pick it up, and make the point. He’ll stop Rico. He’ll win convincingly. There won’t be much actual trouble when all is said and done; the potential for it is real, but it would require Usyk to make the sort of mistakes that Usyk does not make.
Prediction: Oleksandr Usyk by TKO between Rounds 5 and 8
